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Sci-fi is fantastic, we all know that, but do you also know that it invented everything that makes life worthwhile?
That’s right. If it wasn’t for sci-fi writers and their vast imaginations there’d be no TV, no internet and no video games. Imagine that. Imagine living in a world in which humans can only communicate if they’re within a 30-metre radius of each other, or a world in which local co-op gaming is nothing more than one man kicking an inflated pig bladder to another. It doesn’t bear thinking about. Here’s our top 10 of things that sci-fi correctly predicted.
10. Neural interfaces
Neural interfaces have a long tradition in science-fiction, whether it’s to create fully hybrid cyborgs from bits of eviscerated humans, as in Robocop, Star Trek and Dr Who, or simple interfaces that ‘clip’ in to the central nervous system, as in The Matrix, the remake of The Manchurian Candidate, and every alien abduction story that’s ever been told.
Kevin Warwick
While the full-on cyborgs of Robocop and Dr Who are some years off being a reality (as far as we know; who knows what could be lurking in a deep underground lab somewhere), neurons have been successfully grown on slabs of silicon, and the exceptionally brilliant and inspirational Kevin Warwick successfully implanted an array of 100 electrodes in to nerve fibres in one of his arms. This let him control an electric wheelchair and an artificial hand. Sadly, such things make us wish we weren’t poor and stupid so that we could do a masters or PhD in this fascinating field, but looking on the bright side, perhaps no one will be poor and stupid in the future because of Kevin Warwick and his pioneering work. Here’s hoping.
WANT TO KNOW MORE? Neurons grown on silicon Kevin Warwick: the cyborg
9. Motion control How cool would it be to grab and rearrange individual windows on your ultra-thin laptop screen like in that scene from Minority Report, or engage in virtual combat by rabbit-punching your way around your living room like some ASBO-wielding sufferer of St Vitus’ dance?
Not very, because the former involves real, mentally challenging work that we could do without and the latter is too much like proper physical exercise, but that hasn’t stopped Microsoft and Sony making it a reality.
The Xbox Kinect: it’s watching you
Thanks to Kinect and PlayStation Move, you can now suck all the fun out of games by controlling your character as if you were in the game yourself. Instead of simply pressing a button to kill imaginary foes, you can now simulate it by thrusting an imaginary sword into their virtual, vital organs.
The technology works fine, but developers are yet to create anything truly revolutionary with it. It looks to work best as an additional control interface, alongside the trusty joypad, rather than as a standalone device. Still, we expect deeper. more involving such experiences in future.
Whatever happens, sci-fi predicted it.
8. Killer robots
Ever since the Terminator and Short Circuit first hit our top-loading VCRs, we’ve been fascinated by the idea of killer robots that can’t stop, won’t stop, until they’ve fulfilled their primary objective of killing anyone that isn’t us.
These robots are cold-blooded killers whose performance isn’t hindered by the shortcomings of biology or the moral shackles of conscience. They shoot accurately because they don’t shake, being unaffected by cold and fear. They can also pinpoint targets accurately because they aren’t limited by the human eye and its variable build quality. They can also remain fully alert for hours, even days, while they wait for their target to stroll by before ambushing them.
These robots are fast becoming a reality in the form of aerial drones and tracked gun systems that can operate remotely and intelligently without human supervision, such as the MQ-9 Reaper aerial combat drone.
”You have 20 seconds to comply” is just as threatening when our editor says it
Such technology is understandably cloaked in secrecy, so we’re unable to bring you any explicit robot on flesh action, but it exists.
Apparently, these real-life killer robots know you’re on their side if you carry a transponder that broadcasts a specific code, but what’s to stop these murderous machines going ED-209 if your transponder’s damaged by flak or general failure? Forget the harrowing cries of urban foxes and the cacophony of crossrail construction, this is what keeps us awake at night.
WANT TO KNOW MORE? MQ-9 Reaper
7. Space stations Whether it’s the Death Star, the Yutani-Weyland space station from Aliens or Superted’s second home, the space station has fascinated sci-fi fans for decades. The thought of living in space, but with ample gravity and in the earth’s orbit, is an enticing and exciting thought, but thanks to the imaginations of science-fiction pioneers such as Arthur C. Clarke and the cooperation of many fiercely independent states, the space station is now a reality.
Inside the ISS
The space station with which most modern people will be familiar is the International Space Station (ISS), but older readers will remember Mir, the first proper space station that excited us and fired our own imaginations as children. It doesn’t have gravity or the ability to destroy entire planets from a distance, thus causing a disturbance in the force, but the ISS is humanity’s first step towards living in the cosmos. On it, Astonauts and Cosmonauts live for months on end without setting foot on terra firma, and conduct experiments that further enhance our ability to live, work and play in space.
WANT TO KNOW MORE? Sci-fi predicted the International Space Station
6. Bluetooth headsets
No street corner is complete without some expletive screaming into a Bluetooth headset, and for that we can thank Star Trek. Yes, you heard it right. Star Trek predicted the Bluetooth headset, so the next time you watch someone bark their takeaway order into an ear-mounted microphone as if they were explaining the Magna Carta to King John for the very first time, you know where that technology came from.
WANT TO KNOW MORE? Star Trek Bluetooth headsets
A Star Trek Bluetooth Headset
5. Mobile phones
Ever since we first watched Jim Kirk request a popular brand of whisky via a handheld mobile communications device, we’ve wanted to do the same. Thankfully, it would only be a couple of decades before the Star Trek communicator became a reality, but the first models suffered from a serious bug that meant they could only work if you screamed “buy!” and “sell!” in to them at ear-splitting volumes. Within a few years, however, various manufacturers had invented devices that let users hold regular conversations. The ability to speak to practically anyone, anywhere in the world, from almost anywhere in the world, is now something we take for granted.
WANT TO KNOW MORE? The best phone money can buy?
Star Trek predicted the mobile phone
4. Communications satellites
Arthur C. Clarke is a true genius in every sense of the word. Not only did he invent the paranormal with his seminal TV series The Strange World of Arthur C. Clarke, he also invented the communications satellite, a device that has revolutionised the way we watch TV, use our computers and interact with other people. According to Wikipedia, Clarke posited the use of communication satellites in an article with the catchy title of ‘Extra-Terrestrial Relays – Can Rocket Stations Give Worldwide Radio Coverage?’
What a communications satellite probably looks like
So the next time you’re enjoyning the sight of two muscle-bound oafs smacking each other into submission on the other side of the world, courtesy of a live pay-per-view event, spare a thought for Arthur C. Clarke and the literary snoozefest he wrote one afternoon in 1945.
WANT TO KNOW MORE? Arthur C. Clarke predicted the use of satellites for communcations
3. The tablet computer
Apple released its tablet computer in 2010 but it wasn’t exactly the first. In fact, the tablet computer might well have been invented by a prop maker or artist working on Kubrick’s excellent visual rendering of Arthur C. Clarke’s 2001: A Space Odyssey.
Simply resolutionary
In the film, two astronauts can be seen using a ‘newspad’, a rectangular and slim-line computer that lets the user engage with high technology in a casual manner. Samsung famously used the same scene in its defence when Apple sued it for patent infringement.
2. Flying cars
Back To The Future Part II was a terrible disappointment. Ever since the first Back To the Future closed with “To be continued…” in 1985 we’d longed to see a sequel, and by the time Part II was released – a full four years later (and that’s decades in child years) – we’d given up all hope of one. The anticipation was so huge that Part II could never live up to the hype, but looking back it did have some remarkably accurate predictions, and one of them was that we’d have commercially available flying cars by 2015.
Flying cars by 2015? You bet
Okay, so it isn’t exactly pretty or practical for most commuters, but Terrafugia’s ‘flying car’ does have licences for both road and air, and is set to be commercially available in 2013.
WANT TO KNOW MORE? Terrafugia’s flying car
1. The internet
Sadly, the literary genius Douglas Adams never lived to see the proliferation of internet-connected smartphones, devices that let you find a clean Soho toilet one moment and the distance of Earth’s closest celestial neighbour the next. If he had, he’d have enjoyed the warm, smug feeling of sitting back with a gin and tonic in one hand and his prized smartphone in the other, checking his emails while searching for panda images, and thinking to himself, “I invented that”. May he rest in peace.
WANT TO KNOW MORE? The greatest story ever told
Douglas Adams, as he would have appeared when this photo was taken
